This is by no means an exhaustive listing of Halloween books. I am documenting all of the ones I'm aware of, and including reviews if they are books I own or have read. As always, your mileage may vary (YMMV).
Non-Fiction
About Halloween
- Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night by Nicholas Rogers
One of those "only Halloween book in the store" purchases. Can't recommend.
- Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal
Recommended.
Entertaining/Decorating
- 101 Spooktacular Party Ideas by Linda Sadler
It's an older book, so it's kind of outdated. Considering my current collection (this book was delivered on 2/21/08), there was little in it to appeal to me. No real problems with it -- if you have to plan parties for kids, or don't have an extensive library, this might be a good addition.
- Create a Bewitched Fall-O-Ween by Kasey Rogers & Mark Wood
2/19/08: Just ordered this, based on my love for Kasey's first book.
- Dover Humorous Halloween Clipart
A little cutesy for my taste, but could be fun if you're doing a retro-style invitation, etc. Make sure you get one that comes with a CD. They still make the kind that have several sizes of each image, to be cut out and pasted into a layout. (That's the kind I got.)
- Ed Emberly's Drawing Book of Halloween
Great for kids, or the kid in all of us
- Eerie Elegance: How To Host A Haunt And Other Fabulous Frights by Britta Peterson
Price is a little high for a book of this size, but that's because it's self-published. In my opinion, it's totally worth it, to see some original ideas, in action.
- Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors by Tom Nardone
Fun book.
- Give
Them a Real Scare This Halloween by Joseph Pfeiffer
For those looking to expand their Trick-or-Treat venue. Line drawings and several clever ideas.
- Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells by Silver RavenWolf.
Not bad, but not to my taste. (I bought it because it was the only Halloween book in the store at the time, and I was in the mood.) Since passed on to a pagan friend who could appreciate it more.
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- Halloween: 101 Frightfully Fun Ideas by Better Homes and Gardens Books and Carol Dahlstrom
I finally figured out to see if a book was from BHG before ordering/buying! I have two issues with all of these books: 1) There is nothing unique in any book that I have seen. All of the content is from another book or a past issue of BHG. 2) This would not be a huge problem (Martha Stewart publications have a similar practice) if much of the content appealed to me. Sadly, it does not. YMMV -- I know of some children that would probably love most of the projects. (Edit: Feb. 2009, I'm giving it to my nephew (6 y.o.).)
- Halloween Crafts: Eerily Elegant Decor by Kasey Rogers
Kasey Rogers played Mrs. Tate on the classic TV show, Bewitched. She was a huge Halloween fan, and released two books about entertaining for her favorite holiday. I was quite surprised to like this book as much as I did (so much so, that I immediately ordered a used copy the moment I discovered that my copy was missing! (I now own two copies.)). I'm not so big on the themes, but found several projects that I intend to try. Not for the hard-core haunter, looking for screams and scares; this book is ideal for someone looking for cool decorations for an adult party.
- Halloween Decorating (Arts & Crafts for Home Decorating Series)
Comments to be added
- Halloween Fun: 101 Ideas to Get in the Spirit by Better Homes and Gardens Books and Carol Dahlstrom
See Halloween 101, above
(Edit: Feb. 2009, I'm giving it to my nephew (6 y.o.).)
- A
Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne
An excellent book.
- Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past by Diane C. Arkins
My only real complaint about this book is that the images of vintage Halloween books and decorations are too small. An interesting look back at the celebration of Halloween in "Golden Age" (1870-1930) of the holiday.
- Halloween Parties: How to Throw Spook-Tacular Soirees and Frighteningly Festive Entertainments by Lori Hellander
Heavily relies on retro themes that don't appeal to me, so I don't have a lot of use for this book. Having said that, the photography is very nice and I still enjoy flipping through the pages on occasion.
- Halloween Recipes & Crafts by Christine Lyseng Savage, Rosa Poulin & Tamara Eder
What I can say that it's well photographed and nicely done, just not at all to my taste. It's definitely a kid's book, one which is no longer in my library. I gave it to my 6-year-old nephew. (He gets more books this way...)
- Halloween Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family (Holiday Celebrations) by Donata Maggipinto and Richard Jung
I liked it. More on the cutesy, kid-friendly side of things without being too cute. There were some ideas I could adapt.
- Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics (Icons) by Steven Heller
Really great to flip through. Sadly, some of the best images cover two pages, so they can't be put to other uses.
- Hocus Pocus: Halloween Crafts for a Spooktacular Holiday (ass't. Authors)
I need to flip through this again and edit the comments for it.
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Costumes
- Illegally Easy: Halloween Costumes for Kids by Leila Peltosaari
Definitely kids only.
- The Halloween Handbook: Dress-up for Grown-ups by Bridie Clark and Ashley Dodd
Would really depend on taste. I'm not a big fan of pun costumes and there are a lot of them in this book
- Singer's Halloween Costumes
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Fiction
- The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury (in hub's library)
- Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I finally read this in 2008. I intended to read all the classics. Stalled with Frankenstein, which I did not like, but intend to get Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
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Magazines/Special Publications
- Dollhouse Miniatures - October 2005. Purchased during a short-lived interest in miniatures. I'm holding on to it because, you know -- Halloween.
- Happy Halloween magazine. Back issues occasionally available from Halloween Alliance (not now). I have several issues (not all). Some articles available as free downloads.
- HallowZeen e-zine. Back issues still available for download.
- Home Haunters News. The first few issues are not necessarily printer-friendly -- if you want a hard copy to file away, take the PDF(s) to a copy shop on a CD/thumb drive.
- Halloween:
The Best of Martha Stewart Living. Nicely assembled collection of projects. It is because it's so well-done that I've relaxed my usual hatred of compilations.
- Martha Stewart Living, October.
- I have 1991, 1995 - 2998. Because of storage space, I had to tear several of them apart and store the covers and relevant pages. (1991, 1995, 2000 & 2008 are whole)
- Every issue has a couple of fresh ideas, plus some rehashed from previous issues.
- The Oct. 2000 issue is, hands down, my favorite issue. The Halloween feature is a series of photos accompanying a story by R.L. Stein. This is the issue that had the severed finger invitation. I have seen the photos from this issue (or previously unused shots) in several subsequent issues (regular and "Holiday").
- Holiday: Martha Stewart Living. Released (so far) in 2000, 2004 and 2007, this special publication has its pros and cons. It is not supposed to be a compilation, but there is little new and fresh in the latter two issues. They are still well-done, and enjoyable to flip through, but do not offer much original content if you are a regular reader of the MS Living October issues.
- I don't know if the first issue (2000) was 100% new, but it was excellent. Later issues offered less and less in the way of new content.
- Make magazine's Halloween issue. Premiered for Halloween 2007. Higher tech projects. I'm on the fence with this one. Always happy to see a new Halloween magazine, of course!
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Books I regret buying
One of the frustrating things when it comes to building one's Halloween library is that so few books are availalbe locally. Amazon review can be helpful, but they are also very easy for authors to take advantage of (review their own books, trash competitor's books, get their mom's to review), so one takes a risk whenever one orders. Maybe the following will help. For obvious reasons, I'm not linking to the books.
- Adult Halloween Parties: Spooktacular Decorations, Food, Drinks, Costumes & Beyond by M. McCarthy
Has the distinct honor of being the only book I can remember returning. Small, self-published "book," with less than 60 pages of content in large type. References the Halloween book by Martha Stewart, listed above, at least twice.
- Handmade Halloween: Ideas for a Happy, Haunted Celebration by the editors of Country Living Magazine
Not recommended, with one exception: the costume on the cover and a couple of others, if done in fleece, would be very appropriate for the too-cold Halloweens those of us in some of the northern/midwest states have to deal with. Otherwise... let's just say I'm glad I got it used. (This book is out of print, and available for reasonable prices via used booksellers. Still can't recommend it.)
- Scary Scenes for Halloween by Jill Williams Grover.
This book was not out of print when I ordered it, but it is no longer available, except through used booksellers. That's okay, because it's one of the most annoying books I've encountered. Tip: if a book has "scary" in the title - it's really probably not even a tiny bit scary. I bought this book because of two reasons: it was implied that the premise of the book was porch scenes, an idea I find fascinating (but...not so much); and, because there was a particularly nasty review that didn't address the book at all, but was an attack upon the author, which I thought was overly personal and cruel. Worst reason to buy a book, ever. That may still be true, but this book was pretty awful. The random overuse of quotation marks was enough for me. Based on the description and other comments, I expected some oh, scary scenes. Not even a little.
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Books I want
While I work on this, feel free to check out My Amazon Wish List. It's not Halloween-specific -- books on the subject are mixed in with knitting things, tv shows on DVD, etc.
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